Oct. 7, 2011
By Brandon Naidus
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) After back-to-back first place finishes, the No. 6 UCF men's golf team will play in its third tournament of the season, the Prestige at PGA West. The three-day tournament is co-hosted by Stanford and UC Davis. Teams will play 18 holes on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the Greg Norman Course at PGA WEST in La Quinta, Calif.
In addition to the Knights, the field consists of No. 2 Oregon, No. 12 Stanford, San Diego, San Francisco, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Arizona State, Long Beach State, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, USC, Washington and UC Davis.
UCF senior Brad Schneider (Valrico, Fla.) is looking to repeat his performance from the first tournament of the season, the Northern Intercollegiate, where he took co-medalist honors. At the Knights' most recent tournament, the Adams Cup of Newport, sophomore Ricardo Gouveia (Almancil, Portugal) took medalist honors.
Sophomore Jose Joia (Lagoa, Portugal) attempts to record his third top-10 finish of the season. This will be the second appearance of the season for sophomore Kyle Wilshire (Georgetown, Ky.), while sophomore Hojin Kang (Lake Mary, Fla.) will be making his season debut.
In their first tournament of the season, the Knights claimed first place by 10-strokes over second-place Tulsa. The Knights posted a final score of 870 (+18). They were led by Schneider, who claimed co-medalist honors after finishing at 212 (-1) for the tournament. Joia and Gouveia also posted top-10 finishes.
At the Adams Cup of Newport, Gouveia claimed medalist honors and helped the team win its second-consecutive tournament, by finishing 204 (-11). The Knights finished at 842 (-18). That score put them nine shots ahead of second-place Georgia. Schneider and Joia also joined Gouveia in the top-10. Gouveia, Schneider, and Joia have finished in the top-10 at both tournaments this season.
Last season, UCF finished seventh at the Prestige at PGA West.